ATT: Spaghetti
by hotchityhotchhotch
Summary: Oneshot tie-in to All This Time. Hotch/Charlotte. Summary is inside to avoid spoiling those who haven't read/finished ATT. COMPLETE.


**Summary: Hotch drops Charlotte off for her first day of school.**

**Age Guide: Hotch: 50; Emily: 45; Sean: 40; Jack: 10; Henry: 7; Charlotte: 5; Ben & Ryan: 3**

**September 2016**

"You sure you're okay going alone?" Emily asked Hotch. It was a perfect late summer morning and Hotch was trying to get a five-year-old Charlotte's right pigtail to match the left.

"We're good, right Charlie?" Hotch said brightly, kissing her on the forehead.

"Yup! You can go now, Mommy," Charlotte said, waving Emily away.

"Well, then," Emily said, knowing when she wasn't wanted. "I'll see you guys tonight. Love you."

Hotch whispered something into Charlotte's ear and she obediently bounced toward the front door, where Emily was picking up her briefcase and heading outside to a car full of waiting children. "Love you, too," Charlotte said, wrapping her arms around Emily's waist. She crooked her finger and gestured for Emily to crouch down. "Daddy said to give you a kiss."

"Oh, well, if Daddy said so, then I think you should." Emily smiled sweetly and shared a kiss with Charlotte, then a sardonic stare with her husband.

"Can we go to school now?" Charlotte asked her dad.

"Let me fix your pigtail first," Hotch said.

Charlotte shook her head wildly. "It's seven-three-nine! We're gonna be late."

"Are you sure you need to go to school?" Hotch asked wistfully, helping her strap on her brightly colored backpack and picking her up. "You're getting big so fast."

He remembered Emily doing the very same thing two years ago with Henry, insisting that she would be fine on her own. She had still been misty-eyed when she'd seen him after work that night.

"When I get big you won't be able to carry me anymore," Charlotte informed him as they walked out the door.

"I know, that's why I'm getting it all in now, while I can. Is that okay?"

"Yup," Charlotte said. The way she looked around in anticipation and wiggled in her booster seat, Hotch found it hard to focus on the road on his way to the only school in the district that offered all-day kindergarten. He didn't look forward to the day where she might ask to take the bus in the morning instead. "Excited?" he asked as they neared their destination.

"Yeah, hurry! I get to ride on the bus after kindergarten so I can go to daycare, right?"

"You sure do. Your teacher will show you which one to get on."

"Can I ride the bus to get to school in the morning?"

Hotch felt like he'd been shot right in the heart. "Maybe soon. I'd like to keep giving you a ride in the morning, if that's all right."

"Okay," she said cheerily enough. "Are we almost there?"

"Almost." Hotch purposely let off the gas a little so he could collect himself. Though Charlotte didn't ask to hold his hand, he reached for hers anyway on their way up the sidewalk.

"Daddy, are they gonna call me Charlie or Charlotte?" she asked right before Hotch opened the door.

"Well, whichever you want, sweetie."

When a friendly house mother bent down to greet Charlotte at her level and asked what her name was, Charlotte made her decision. "I'm Charlie. What's your name?"

"I'm Miss Kathy. Are you ready to start your first day?"

"I gotta say bye to my daddy first," Charlotte said. "But you can take my stuff." She handed over her backpack and lunchbox.

"Charlie, that's a little rude," Hotch chided her. "Miss Kathy will show you where to put your things when you're ready to go in. Give me a kiss." Hotch squatted down and received a tight hug instead. Her miniature grip on him squeezed out a couple of tears that he managed to swallow away. He wasn't sure he'd be able to let her go. Though he wanted only the best for her, though he had grand visions for her academic future, he secretly hoped that she would be scared and say she wasn't ready. "I love you so much, Charlie. You have a good day, listen to instructions, and make some new friends, all right?"

"Can you stay with me?" Charlotte asked with sudden timidity when she looked through the open door of the classroom and saw nothing but strangers.

"I can't, honey. I have to go to work," Hotch replied with a firm lump in his throat.

"I'm scared," Charlotte whined, latching onto Hotch again.

Here was Hotch's chance. He could take her to daycare where she already knew every staff member and all the children. Better yet, he could call in sick and spend the day with his distraught daughter and they could try again tomorrow. But he knew tomorrow wouldn't be any easier. "There's nothing to be scared of. I promise. You're gonna have a lot of fun. But only if you go by yourself. The other kids might look at you funny if you make your daddy stay with you."

Charlotte gave her dad one of her award-winning pouts when he held her at arm's length. "_Please_?"

Hotch brushed Charlotte's stray golden hairs away from her face so they didn't cover her shimmering blue eyes. "Do you trust me, Charlie?"

She nodded.

"Well, I'm telling you it's going to be just fine. After today you'll be so excited to go again tomorrow. I promise."

"Can you pick me up after if I miss you?"

Hotch smiled and rested his lips on her forehead. "Today, sure. I'll leave work early and we can make dinner together. But only if you're brave for me and you go in by yourself now. Deal?"

The tears that spilled down Charlotte's cheeks made Hotch wish she would go inside already, just so he could go back out to the car and shed a few tears of his own.

He held her again and swayed her back and forth. "I promise, I'll see you again before you know it. Look, they have big giant puzzles you can put together on the floor. You love those. Go, have fun." He thumbed her cheeks dry and nudged her toward the door.

Charlotte looked back, only a foot away from Hotch. "I love you, Daddy."

"I love you too, Charlie."

"Don't forget to pick me up," she said nervously.

"I'll be here when the bell rings."

"There's bells?" she asked with wide eyes.

Just then, the first bell of the day went off. "That's just the five minute warning," the house mother said, poking her head out of the classroom. "You have a few more minutes if you need them."

"I think we're good, right, sweetie?" Hotch said, reaching out to twist one of Charlotte's pigtails around his finger.

"Do you have crayons, too?" Charlotte asked, looking up at Miss Kathy.

"Oh, we have lots of crayons. We have a special time set aside just for drawing."

"Good, I wanna draw my daddy a picture," Charlotte said. "Do you have to go now?" she asked her biggest fan.

Hotch nodded. "But I'll see you soon."

—

Hotch was twenty minutes early in picking Charlotte up that afternoon. She came running toward him, a large piece of paper trailing behind her in one hand and her lunchbox bouncing around in the other. "Daddy!" she shrieked.

Hotch bent down to pick her up and swung her around to his hip. "Hey, you. How was your day?" he asked, tickling her slide.

She giggled and pushed herself out of his hold, leading him out into the sunshine. "I drew you a picture."

"Wow…that's pretty good. Thank you so much." Hotch's heart warmed further at seeing Charlotte's crude rendition of the entire family, Mitch and Uncle Sean included. She'd brought home countless pictures from daycare, but this one would definitely not get tucked away between cookbooks or into a junk drawer. The first thing Hotch did when they got in the door was tack the picture up on the refrigerator.

"Okay, I'm ready to make dinner." Charlotte opened the pantry and managed to pull down an apron. "What're we makin'?"

"Is that spaghetti in the picture you drew?" Hotch asked, now realizing why the hands of two stick figures were filled with piles of red squiggles.

"Oh yeah! Spaghetti! I drew you and me cooking dinner."

"Spaghetti it is, then," Hotch said. "You know what I want to do while we cook, though?"

"What?" Charlotte asked, sliding a step stool to the sink so she could wash her hands.

"I want to talk about what you learned today."

Charlotte beamed and pushed her hair from her face with wet, soapy hands. "I learned a lot."

Hotch thumbed away the soap from Charlotte's forehead. "Tell me all about it."

**A/N: Please leave a review! This story was for Daisyangel.**


End file.
